After about ten days I suddenly fell ill. It was the devilish swamp fever. My stomach was completely ruined. I could not eat anything and felt very unwell.
Since it did not go away, but only got worse, I had to go to the doctor. From the Frikorps medical officer I was sent on to the main medical station, which was located in Biakorwo (it was on the hill where we had spent the first night, where the bunker burned down and where von Schalburg was later buried).
On the way there I was transported on an ox cart together with other sick and wounded. It turned out that I had a high temperature and needed medical treatment.
The first treatment consisted of being given a piece of soap and a towel and being sent behind the house, where the river Louwat flowed past, to take a bath.
It was nice, after all those days of fighting and filth, to get a fresh bath in the cold water, but hardly very effective as a cure for my swamp fever.
From there I was sent back to Lasnitzi with a “Gug machine” (a very large, powerful vehicle on caterpillar tracks).
In Lasnitzi I met several comrades who were there to look after our personal belongings that had been left behind. Our cobbler and gunsmith, among others, also had their workshops there.
There I was examined by a doctor again, and it was decided that I should be sent to the field hospital in Demyansk (the town where we had landed by airplane when we came from Poland). The following day the journey continued by lorries over 75 kilometres of terrible roads and across fragile bridges to Demyansk.
The field hospital of the SS Totenkopf Division in Demyansk, which I was to enter, was beautifully laid out and large. Between the various houses and barracks everything was neatly planted, and the grounds were kept in the finest order. It looked extremely inviting to a tired soldier.
The hospital also had a large and skilled medical staff, all belonging to the SS Totenkopf Division (SS T-Div.). This unit, as previously mentioned, was also the one we Danes were assigned to.
I was not allowed to enter the hospital before I had gone to a small nearby building to be deloused, even though I had not yet noticed any of these later so faithful “house pets.” The delousing station was very primitive; you had to strip off every piece of clothing, which was then placed in an oven for an hour at 90 degrees, so that no lice or eggs could survive.
At the same time I was bathed in a large barrel and scrubbed from head to toe. A liquid against lice was added to the bathwater.
After this treatment I was taken to the hospital’s ward for swamp fever patients, and it was wonderful to be allowed to lie in a bed again, even if it was a wooden bunk bed in two tiers.
In my ward there was, besides myself, another Dane from our pioneer unit; the rest were Germans, partly from the Wehrmacht and SS.
Here I took the opportunity to write the first letters home after we had been in action, and I think I became a little melancholic, beginning to long for home to my mother and father.
I also missed my comrades whom I had left behind in H.K.L.
The pioneer I was sharing the room with was of little comfort to me, as we did not get along. He was an arrogant fellow who openly talked about being here only to slack off.
This was an insult to all the other Danes who were faithfully enduring their duties. There were very few of that kind who wanted to avoid service, but there are always some in every unit, in every army.
We received excellent treatment and well-prepared food. We were cared for and looked after by a medic, a very young and pleasant fellow.
Every third day, “Santa Claus” came by. He was an SS Totenkopf Division Unterscharführer who had a Russian girl with him. The two of them carried a large basket filled with all kinds of nice things: fine milk chocolate, sweets, cigarettes, and much more.
From these items we each received a portion every third day, and at times even two bars of the good chocolate. He was a true Santa Claus, always in high spirits and joking, while the pretty young Russian girl walked around and gave the sick and weak ones “looks”—she was quite skilled at that.